VacationSelector
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Nuevo Vallarta or Tampa?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo Vallarta’s own page.

Choose Tampa for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Nuevo Vallarta 84, Tampa 70: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Nuevo Vallarta 40, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Nuevo Vallarta 6, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Nuevo Vallarta 16, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nuevo Vallarta 75, Tampa 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Nuevo Vallarta 58, Tampa 54: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Nuevo Vallarta 73, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Nuevo Vallarta 25, Tampa 22: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Nuevo Vallarta 22, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Nuevo Vallarta 45, Tampa 40: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nuevo Vallarta 18, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nuevo Vallarta 55, Tampa 30: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nuevo Vallarta and Tampa.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tampa
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Nuevo VallartaTampa

Where the figures come from

Nuevo Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNuevo VallartaTampa
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m30 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNuevo VallartaTampa
City population1,301384,959
People per km²-848
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Nuevo Vallarta or Tampa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.